Search Category: Sales Tax
Grocers Basics Guide
This guide explains sales and use tax laws for grocers. Grocers are retailers who are primarily involved in selling food for home preparation and consumption.
Grocers must have a valid seller’s permit, collect sales tax, file a sales tax return, and forward the tax to the Tax Commission. See our Retailers guide for information about getting an Idaho seller’s permit, doing business in Idaho, and much more.
Sales – Grocers
Taxable sales
You must charge tax on most sales, including:
- Retail sales of food, drink, cosmetics, and household supplies to the final consumer
- Newspapers and magazines sold over a store counter
- Reusable grocery bags
- Sales through vending machines
- Rentals of items such as DVDs, video players and carpet shampooers
Nontaxable sales
Some nontaxable sales include:
- Sales to customers who are buying with food stamps; with electronic benefits transfer cards; or with Women, Infants and Children (WIC) checks.
- Sales of prescription drugs and prescription drug refills.
- Items customers are buying for resale.
- Sales to exempt organizations.
- Sales of lottery tickets.
- Deposits paid on returnable bottles.
- Cylinder sales of liquified propane in units of 15 gallons or less can be sold without getting an exemption certificate. Sales of any other type of heating fuels require a completed exemption certificate from the buyer (e.g., compressed fireplace logs).
Coupons, Vouchers and Gift Cards – Grocers
Customers often use coupons, vouchers or gift cards to pay for all or part of the bill. Tax these payment types as follows.
Coupons
| Does a third party reimburse you? | Charge sales tax on: | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | Total sales price before you subtract the discount amount | Manufacturer’s coupon |
| No | Sales price after you subtract the discount amount | Coupon you distribute in a newspaper or online |
Vouchers
Vouchers are something that a customer can use for a discount on a product or service, such as a two-for-one dinner or a manicure at a reduced price. The customer buys the voucher in advance from a third-party provider, such as Groupon.
| Do you know how much the customer paid for the voucher? | Charge sales tax on: |
|---|---|
| Yes | Amount the customer paid for the voucher |
| No | Face value of the voucher |
Keep documentation to support the tax calculation on all discounted sales.
Gift cards and certificates
Don’t charge tax when a customer buys gift cards or certificates because they’re a form of payment. Charge sales tax on the price of the goods that someone buys using the gift cards or certificates.
You can’t treat a gift card redemption like it’s a retailer’s discount coupon, even if you sold the gift card or certificate at less than its face value.
Buying Goods for Resale – Grocers
Some of the items you purchase for your business are exempt from sales tax.
Taxable purchases
Examples of items you must pay tax on when you buy them include:
- Fixtures, such as movable coolers, checkout stands, racks and shelving
- Office equipment, furniture, automobiles
- Price labels, stickers, ink, shelf labels (but not product labels that include commodity information)
- Items that aren’t for resale (e.g., office or warehouse supplies)
- Advertising inserts (see Persons Engaged In Printing, Sales Tax Rule 054)
- Goods you take from your resale inventory to use yourself or give away, unless an exemption applies
If you withdraw food or beverages from your resale inventory to donate to individuals or to certain nonprofit organizations, you might not owe use tax. See Idaho Code section 63-3621, see (o) and (p).
However, if you donate any goods to any other organization, you must pay use tax.
Nontaxable purchases
Items you buy for resale, such as grocery items, are exempt from sales tax.
Other examples of resale items include:
- Items you rent at your store (e.g., DVDs , carpet shampooers)
- Merchandise containers sold with the product (e.g., grocery bags, soft drink cups, deli containers)
You must provide your supplier with a completed 
Form ST-101 – Sales Tax Resale or Exemption Certificate.
Recordkeeping for Grocers
You must keep records of all the purchases and sales your business makes. Your records must show that you properly collected, reported and forwarded taxes to Idaho.
Grocers can ask for relief from keeping detailed invoices of nontaxed sales by completing and mailing us Form ST-110 – Petition for Sales Tax Records Reduction By a Retail Food Store.
We’ll let you know if your request is approved and, if approved, how to use Form ST-111 – Sales Tax Records – Retail Food Stores in documenting your sales.
Records you must keep
- Normal books of account. (Books of account can include information stored on computers.)
- Documents that support entries in the books of account.
- Bills
- Receipts
- Invoices
- Cash register tapes
- Job or work orders
- Contracts
- All schedules or working papers used to prepare your tax returns
- All records of sales (and credit granted for returned items).
- Purchases.
- Tax returns.
- Tax payments.
- Copies of sales tax resale or exemption certificates ( Form ST-101).
What the records must show
- Gross receipts from sales and services made in Idaho, even sales that you or your customer might consider exempt from tax. If you deliver the product or service somewhere other than your place of business, you must also keep records that prove where delivery took place.
- The identity of customers claiming an exemption, the type of exemption, and what you sold them exempt.
- All deductions claimed in filing returns.
- The total purchase price of anything you bought for sale, rental, lease, or your own use.
- The amount of sales tax you collected from your customer, or that you paid to a vendor.
You must keep all sales and use tax records for four years. You should keep records for seven years if you don’t file returns.
Laws and Rules for Grocers
Learn more about grocery sales:
- Exempt Private and Public Organizations — Idaho Code section 63-3622O
- Imposition and Rate of the Use Tax – Exemptions — Idaho Code section 63-3621
- Responsibility for Tax — Idaho Code section 63-327; Sales Tax Rule 118
- Returns and Payments — Idaho Code section 63-3623
- Sale — Idaho Code section 63-3612
- Sales Price — Idaho Code section 63-3613; Sales Tax Rules 043
- Taxes as State Money — Idaho Code section 63-3623A
Food, Meals, and Drinks
This guide explains Idaho sales and use tax law for furnishing, preparing, or serving food, meals or drinks.
Exempt Sales
Exempt Uses
Food and Admissions
Selling them together
Grocers
Grocers are retailers who are primarily involved in selling food for home preparation and consumption.
Basics Guide
Sales
You must charge
tax on most sales
Coupons
Customers often use coupons, vouchers or gift cards to pay their bill
Buying
Some of the items you purchase for your business are exempt from sales tax
Recordkeeping
How to keep records for grocers
Laws and Rules
Laws and rules
for grocers
Lodging: Basics Guide
This guide explains Idaho sales and use, Travel and Convention, and auditorium district tax laws for hotels, motels and other businesses that provide lodging in Idaho. It describes:
- How to charge your customers tax
- When to pay tax on goods you buy to operate your business
- How owners of short-term rentals and vacation rentals comply with these laws
Businesses that provide accommodations for a fee must charge sales tax when renting out lodging for 30 days or less. “Providing accommodations” means renting one or more temporary places to use or occupy.
Businesses that provide accommodations to the public include:
- Hotels
- Motels
- Resorts
- Bed and breakfasts
- Campgrounds and RV parks*
- Cabins*
- Vacation homes*
- Private residences*
*Including individuals who rent their home or property, such as a field, for money or barter
This guide refers to these businesses as “lodging providers.”
Lodging: Types of Tax Due
These taxes only apply when you provide a rental for 30 days or less.
Taxes you forward to the Tax Commission
You might need to charge one or more of these taxes:
- Idaho sales tax when you provide sleeping rooms and nonsleeping rooms.
- Travel and convention tax when you provide sleeping rooms.
- An auditorium district tax when you provide sleeping and nonsleeping rooms within an auditorium district’s boundaries, except campground charges.
This chart shows which taxes are due for specific lodging types:
| Accommodation Type | Idaho Sales Tax | Travel & Convention Tax | Auditorium District Tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleeping room at a hotel, motel or resort | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Meeting room at any lodging provider | Yes | No | Yes |
| Bed & Breakfast | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Overnight spaces in campgrounds or RV parks that an Idaho government agency owns or operates | Yes | No | No |
| Overnight spaces in campgrounds or RV parks that any other provider operates (other than the federal government) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Day-use spaces in any campground | Yes | No | No |
| Cabin | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Vacation home | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Private residence | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Other charges and amenities
The fee to rent lodging can include additional property and services. See this list of taxes you must charge for each:
Common additional charges for property and services
You forward all of these taxes to the Tax Commission.
Taxes local governments collect
You might need to charge local taxes and forward them to the local governments that administer them. See “Local Sales Tax” for more information.
Loyalty and rewards programs
You might need to charge customers tax on the value of a free room if you have a loyalty or rewards program that gives them free nights. The “value” is the amount the customer would have paid for the room.
Charge room taxes* on the value of the free room if both of these are true:
- A third party administers your rewards program.
- Customers can pay for nights with points earned through credit card purchases, by buying points directly from the third party, or by other means.
Don’t charge room taxes on the free night if both of these are true:
- You administer your own rewards program.
- You can clearly document that the customer received a free night of lodging as a reward for staying “x” number of nights.
Also, don’t charge room taxes if the free night applies to a stay that qualifies for an exemption (e.g., it’s part of a continuous stay longer than 30 days). However, you must document the stay as an exemption.
* “Room taxes” include sales tax, travel and convention tax, and any auditorium district tax that applies to your area.